WICB Grassroots looking to finish strong

published by ikhan on Tue, 07/29/2014 - 04:31

Barbados Advocate article.

Bridgetown, Barbados - For the past four weeks, several of the island’s young, budding cricketers have been receiving some valued training in the fundamentals of the sport under the Digicel West Indies Cricket Board Grassroots programme.

Based at the Ursuline Convent, between 35 to 40 youngsters have been under the care of Head Coach Jeremy John since July 7th.

Speaking to The Barbados Advocate yesterday, John explained that the month-long camp was a good mix of beginners and players that had a bit of experience under their belts. Noting that at least 80 per cent of the boys were in their respective school teams or Under-13 club teams, John revealed that the lads ranged from six to 13 in age.

With most of the boys coming from Bay Primary, Will’s St. Ursula’s, St. Cyprian’s, St. Gabriel’s, Luther Thorne, Wesley Hall, Lester Vaughan, Queen’s College and Combermere, John explained that most of their time was spent on gearing the lads up for gameplay.

“We have been working on a lot of game scenarios, we have been taking them into the cage and working on the batting and bowling. We have also been working on the stance, and grips with the batting, footwork and stuff. With regard to bowling, we having been looking at how to get the ball into the right areas and bowling actions. We have also been doing a lot of fielding. We place a lot of emphasis on fielding because a lot of the kids believe that they just come, bat and bowl, but fielding and fitness are major parts of the camp as well.”

With former West Indies Under-19 player Jomel Warrican doing well with the boys, John named Jamal Smith, Jason Haynes and Robin Parris as Directors of the camp, and said that he was not at all worried about where he thought his youngsters were going.

“We have had a lot of boys that have done pretty well last year in the Herman Griffith competition and we also have a set that have gone on to the Under-13 programme and are doing pretty well. The future looks bright.”

Going on to say that throughout the camp the boys were exposed to both the soft and cork balls, John added that the camp would be ending with a bang as competitive games with other teams as well as seminars on drug awareness and crime prevention and visits from nutritionists will be on the agenda.